JUDGMENT :

S.R. Brahmbhatt, J.

Heard learned counsels for the parties.

2. The petitioner claimant has approached this Court by way of this petition preferred under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, challenging the order dated 30.07.2012, passed by the respondent no.2, rejecting the petitioner's application made under Section 28-A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as `the Act' for the sake of brevity) on the ground of it being delayed as it was filed beyond the period of 90 days prescribed.

3. Facts in brief leading to filing this petition, as could be culled out from the memo of the petition, deserve to be set out as under.

4. The petitioner was original land owner bearing Survey No.586/02 on the record of the Village Vitthalgadh, Taluka Lakhtar, District-Surendranagar, admeasuring 1 Hector-38 Are-61 Sq.Mtr. As submitted by the petitioner, the land admeasuring 1 Hector 30 Are 83 Sq. Mtr. of Survey No.586/02 was acquired by respondent no.2 i.e. Special Land Acquisition Officer (Narmada Project), Unit-1, Surendranagar for the purpose of construction of Saurashtra Branch Canal, which is covered in LAQ Case No.139 of 1992. The Award under Section 11 of the Act was declared on 03.11.1995 and the notice under Section 12(2) of the Act was issued to the petitioner on 30.03.1996 indicating the compensation admissible to the petitioner. The petitioner has made following averments in the paragraph nos. 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5, which would indicate the development and incidence in the matter of acquisition.

Para 3.2:-The petitioner states that as the petitioner Ramsangbhai Jerambhai is the owner and having possession of the said land as mentioned in para-3.1 above and aforesaid land being Survey No.586/02 paiki land admeasuring 1 Hector 30 Are 83 Sq.Mtr. was acquired by the respondent no.2-Special Land Acquisition Officer (Narmada Project), Unit No.1, Surendranagar for the purpose of construction of Saurashtra Branch Canal which is covered in LAQ Case No.139 of 1992. Respondent no.2 authority has declared award under section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 on 03.11.1995 in the LAQ Case No.139 of 1992. Accordingly, Special Land Acquisition Officer (Narmada Project), Unit-11, Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad had issued notice under the provisions of Section 12(2) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 to the petitioner on 30.03.1996 and decided that petitioner is entitled for compensation for the land in question of Rs.17,004.38/- paise. It is pertinent to note that the land in question is irrigated land as per the notice issued by the respondent no.2 under Section 12(2) of the Act.

Para 3.3:- The petitioner states that respondent no.2 authority has published notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act in official gazette on 03.09.1992 and notification under Section 6 of the Act was published on 12.10.1993. The Special Land Acquisition Officer has passed award on 03.11.1995 offering compensation to the claimants at the rate of Rs.0.97 paise per sq.mtr. for irrigated land and Rs.0.65 paise per sq.mtr. for non irrigated land. The claimants of Land Ref. Case No.364/1997 to 369/1997 were of the opinion that the offer of compensation made by the Special Land Acquisition Officer was totally inadequate. Therefore, they submitted applications under section 18 of the Act requiring the Special Land Acquisition Officer to refer their cases to the competent court for the purpose of determination of just amount of compensation payable to them. Accordingly, references were made to the District Court, Surendranagar where they were registered as Land Ref.Case Nos.364/97 to 369/97. All the above mentioned land references were consolidated by the learned Judge of the Reference Court, Surendranagar and common evidences were recorded. All reference cases were disposed of by common award dated 20.10.2004.

Para 3.4:- The petitioner states that the Special Land Acquisition Officer had preferred First Appeal Nos.2665 to 2670 of 2